


Overengineered cake is still just cake

by HotaruGFC (JaclynGFC)



Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Chocolate, F/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:33:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22729198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaclynGFC/pseuds/HotaruGFC
Summary: After Charlotte and Yami meet up to talk curses over dinner, her squad decides something more needs to be done to help her confess her feelings.
Relationships: Charlotte Roselei/Yami Sukehiro
Comments: 33
Kudos: 192





	1. Valentine's Day

**Author's Note:**

> I asked for some story ideas on twitter and someone posted a picture of Charlotte trying to give Yami some chocolate for Valentine's day. Well, my mind just ran with it and then proceeded to run all over the place, so I apologize if things aren't entirely coherent. Also, the title is dumb, but I couldn't think of anything which made sense.

"Charlotte!" the young woman called out The blond captain of the blue rose Squadron turned her head to see her Vice-Captain Mira running up to her.

"So, how was it? How was dinner? Did you manage to tell him?" Mira fired question after question. She, along with the rest of the squad had insisted Charlotte ask the Captain of the Black Bulls out once they had all been let in on Charlotte's deepest secret. Surprisingly, or perhaps serendipitously, said Captain had shown up within minutes of her confession to her squad. And so she did ask him. 

Except the purpose was far less romantic than the squad would have liked. They made her promise to at least drop a few hints about her true feelings during the meal.

"Not exactly." Charlotte kept walking. The dinner – she refused to call it a date, though she had heard the word mentioned among a few of the younger squad members before she had left--was nice, but strained. She had not known what to say, or even really how to start a normal conversation with the man. Or at least one where she didn't immediately insult him in some way. 

Charlotte felt hopeless and awkward. She didn't think she would ever be able to tell him.

The tiny brunette sighed as she kept pace with the tall blond. She tossed her head in frustration.

"Well, he did seem fairly clueless as to the whole situation when you asked him. Making everything about business and all."

"It's fine Mira. If he finds out, then he finds out. I don't know if I even want him to." Charlotte sighed, feeling a catch in her voice. Stop lying, she told herself. 

"But you should tell him Charlotte. It's been what 10 years."

Charlotte let out another sigh as she ran her fingers through her loose hair. They had insisted it be worn down for dinner. To show her feminine side, they had said.

"Yeah. About that long."

The pair approached the entrance to the main building when Charlotte noticed several other of the squad's members waiting expectantly.

Charlotte stopped in her tracks for a moment. Sighing, she prepared to face the same line of questioning from the gathered women

"How was the date?"

"Did you have a good time, Captain?"

"Did he figure it out?"

"Did you tell him?"

Several faces watched her as their questions echoed in her mind. Charlotte braced herself against the onslaught. She had no answers for them. Well, not any they wanted to hear.  
I wish Sol were here. She would be a voice of reason, Charlotte thought as she looked at the excitement in their faces.

"No, I didn't tell him. No, he didn't figure it out. We just talked business, that's all."

Every single face fell as if each woman had her dreams crushed. The group seemed to release a collective sigh of disappointment. 

"How could he not know?" One of the women asked, more to herself, Charlotte guessed, than to anyone else.

"Didn't you hear him earlier? He thinks she hates him." Another chimed in to answer the question.

"If the Captain wasn't such a good Magic Knight, she would probably be a great actor, because I thought she hated him too." A third voice added. 

Charlotte rubbed her eyes. She was still exhausted from the recent battle and her possession, and the world had certainly not slowed down enough for her to catch up. And now the talk of curses had opened a gaggle of old wounds. The last thing she wanted to do now was to stand around and try to figure out Yami Sukehiro. Right now, she wanted to sleep.

"I appreciate all of your concerns, but can you please get out of the way?" She said a little more sharply than she had meant. The group who had clustered around the door split down the center and allowed her passage into the building and toward her bed.

***

"I have the perfect plan." Mira grinned as she sat next to her at breakfast.

Charlotte rolled her eyes. Mira's plans never quite worked out the way she described them. 

"A plan for what?"

"For you to tell him how you feel."

"Mira..." Charlotte started to protest.

"Now, just hear me out." 

Charlotte pressed her lips into a thin line as Mira started talking.

***

A few days later, Charlotte sat in the tavern at a table with several of the officers in her squad. Her back was rigid and she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She could not believe she was going along with Mira's plan. She half expected the plan to fall through, as they always seemed to do.

Maybe he won't even show up, she thought as the serving girl placed a plate of food in the center of the table. 

"Relax, Charlotte," Mira whispered. "You're shaking the table." 

"Sorry." Charlotte placed a hand on her knee to still its shaking. The soft fabric of the dress she wore startled her as much now as it did when she had first put it on. Mira had insisted on the dress, and Charlotte had been shocked when Sol had approved and even seemed to help with picking it out. The younger woman was slowly coming around to the idea of her Captain being interested in a man – especially given who that man was. Or at least, Mira had hinted at such.

Still, the thought of going through with the plan made Charlotte nervous. The other women gathered at the table with her laughed and joked as if the day were any other day as if they were seated around a table in the common room back at their headquarters rather than at the unfamiliar tavern in the capital. 

But Mira had done her homework and found he frequented the establishment often – especially on payday. 

Still, despite all of the preparations, he had yet to show up. 

"Captain, you aren't hungry?" One of the lieutenants asked from across the table upon noticing Charlotte stirring the meal before her around with her fork. Charlotte's stomach growled in response and her cheeks blushed at the noise. To be honest, she was starving. So hungry she felt nauseous. She had been too nervous to eat much for breakfast and her midday meal had been forgotten in the effort to dress her. Now the food before her smelled delicious, but it made her feel sick at the same time. She smiled weakly and forced a small bite. Part of her mind registered how the food tasted as good as it smelled, making a note to come back when she wasn't a basket case of nervous energy and could properly enjoy a meal. The rest of her mind screamed about how bad of an idea the taste had been. 

The tavern was loud with conversations, but still, Charlotte could hear him enter the room. She felt her already ramrod straight back further straighten and a slight shiver traveled through her body. And then she heard his voice calling out to the bartender in a familiar manner. His chair scraped loudly against the wooden floor as he pulled it back and she could hear the grunting sigh as he landed in it heavily. The rest of the noise in the room – even her own squad's laughing conversation--had faded away until all Charlotte could hear was his voice and the percussive beating of her heart.

Mira tapped her arm and gave her a grin and a nod. Charlotte watched as the Vice-Captain waved at the girl who had been serving them. Her face blanched in fear as the young girl came over with a tray of several delicate cakes, all individually portioned. The smell of rich chocolate filled her nose. The smell usually made her mouth water, but today she could barely keep herself from wanting to vomit. The serving girl placed one of the cakes in front of each of the women at the table and then looked at the one remaining in her hand. She looked around the table, double-checking her count before looking at the women in confusion. 

"Um, I think they sent out too many."

"Oh, no, we have one member out ill and she couldn't make it. Just leave it on the table." Mira smiled at the girl who placed the extra cake next to her. 

"This is so good!" one of the other women exclaimed. Charlotte looked at the cake and took a tiny taste. She immediately regretted the decision. She sighed in frustration.  
Mira leaned over to her. 

"Are you alright?"

"No. I'm more nervous than I have ever been in my life." She admitted. "And now I feel so helpless, so weak."

"You're not weak, Charlotte. It's alright to be nervous." Mira said, squeezing Charlotte's hand. "It will be fine. What's the worst that could happen?"

"I don't know. I mean it's Yami and he's known to go off at the littlest thing sometimes."

Mira glanced behind her at the lone Black Bull sitting a couple of tables away.

"I think it will be alright. So get to it."

Charlotte stood up.

"I need some air first." She turned away from her squad and immediately heard the whispers going around the table. She took a deep breath as she walked toward the door. A group of loiterers clustered around the opening, blocking her escape. Her heart was racing so fiercely she only wanted to escape, to run, to forget this feeling within her. She wanted to ignore it as she had for so long. She felt tears welling in her eyes as she fought against the desire to hide. 

No, she told herself. She was done hiding. She would conquer this feeling, this weakness within herself. If she could not, how could she ever expect him to respect her? How could she respect herself? 

She turned toward the bathroom instead of fighting her way through the crowd at the door. The path took her past his table. He was engrossed in something as she approached. He picked at the daily special and he sipped on a stein of ale, but his focus seemed inward as if he were lost in thought. She thought it was a strange look for him. Certainly, it was an unexpected one. 

Absently, she ran her fingers along the table as she walked past, but she kept her eyes focused ahead. In the bathroom, she looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair hung loosely around her face and the other girls had insisted on applying a light coating of make-up. The lipstick was brighter, redder than she had ever worn before, and made her lips stand out against her skin like a vibrant strawberry, or the petals of a red, red rose. 

She looked like a stranger. The stranger was very beautiful in an overly feminine sort of way, but she could barely recognize the features in the mirror as her own. 

The dark blue dress clung to her in a way that made her feel exposed. The fabric was soft against her skin, sure, but it almost felt as if she were wearing nothing at all. And with the way it hugged her chest, she felt she might as well be. The others had said it would make her interest more obvious, but it just made her feel strange, vulnerable, too open.

She tucked her loose hair behind one ear. At least they had let her keep her braid, she thought as she ran her fingers over the tightly woven plait. At least that was familiar. 

Charlotte took a deep breath to steel herself. Despite her appearance, she needed to see things through.

"You're going to do this, right?" She asked her reflection. She hoped the image would answer and reassure her. But the version of her looking out of the mirror was silent. 

"Right." She told herself in its stead. "You are. Besides, it's not coming out and saying it directly. If you can't even do this little thing, how can you call yourself strong enough to stand with him?"

She took another deep breath and let it out loudly. 

"Right. First, greet him on your way back." She walked through the plan she had formulated to ease into the main event. "Just tell him hello. Acknowledge his presence. It would be weird otherwise, right?"

She ran her fingers through her hair again, pulling the strands back out from behind her ear.

"Say hello and then go back to your seat. After a few minutes, bring him the cake. Easy."

She let out a shaky breath before she turned from the mirror and forced herself out of the bathroom. 

He was still sitting alone eating and drinking. He seemed a little sad as he picked at the subpar dish before him. Charlotte could not tell if he was upset about the food, about something else, or if it was just his normal face. She passed by him.

"Hello, Yami." Her voice came out calm and steady, though her heart threatened to leap out of her chest. She slowed her pace as she walked passed, turning her head toward him.  
She didn't know if she wanted him to look up at her or ignore her.

He looked up. And then his eyes flicked downward before locking on to her eyes. 

"If it isn't the Prickly Queen of Thorns." One corner of his lips quirked up in a half-smile, while the other held onto the cigarette he had tucked there. "What brings you here? I didn't think you would like places like this." 

Charlotte stopped. He had addressed her in his usual manner, but he had talked to her. Not just a greeting, but an actual question... was he looking for an answer or was he simply being polite? 

Charlotte pressed her lips into a thin line before turning around to face him. She placed her hand on the table. She needed the extra support as she felt her knees would give out at any moment. 

"We're celebrating a birthday today. She wanted to come here." Charlotte gave him the lie she had practiced. The only reason she was here, the only reason they were all here, was for him. "I don't know why, but I guess you can't always account for taste." Her voice was like acid, and she regretted the tone immediately. The half-smile on Yami's turned into a smirk. 

"Yeah, well, not everyone is as accustomed to fancy restaurants and such. Besides, sometimes it's just more fun to let loose." He shifted in his chair and leaned on the table as he withdrew the cigarette from between his lips and exhaled. "But I guess you wouldn't know anything about that." He tapped the ashy end of the cigarette into a dish and stuck it back between his lips. His eyes traveled up her body, more slowly this time, before he met her eyes again. Charlotte shifted slightly under the weight of his gaze and tightened her grip on the table. Yami shrugged. 

"Or maybe you do, I dunno."

No, you don't know, Charlotte thought. She wanted to ask him if he wanted to find out, but the words died in her throat. 

"Thanks for the other night, by the way. That place was delicious, even if it was a little out of my league."

Charlotte blinked and stood silent for a moment as she processed what he had said. 

"Um... You're welcome. I hope I was able to answer your questions, um, sufficiently."

"Yeah." He glanced away from her for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly as if there were more on his mind. She followed his gaze like a cat following an insect. "It was very helpful." He blinked as he looked back at her, his eyes wide as they caught hers. Charlotte felt herself blush as she tucked her loose hair behind her ear.

"Good. Um, I should get back."

"Yeah, right. Don't want to keep the birthday girl waiting." His face had gone back to the bored neutrality it typically had.

Charlotte turned and bit her lip to keep the small smile threatening to form locked within. Aside from dinner, which had devolved into a work discussion, the exchange had been the most they had said to each other which didn't end up with them trading insults. Progress of a sort, Charlotte guessed. 

Mira's eyebrows were raised as Charlotte walked back to the table.

"That went well." The vice-captain said quietly, though the rest of the women leaned in to hear. How could they keep the charade up if everyone was so focused on her, Charlotte wondered. "Now's the perfect time." Mira slid the cake across the table. 

"But what if he doesn't want it?"

"Oh, Captain, you didn't see him after you walked by." 

"What? Why? What happened?"

"That hand across the table thing was a stroke of brilliance, by the way."

"Can someone please tell me what happened?"

"He did a double-take as you passed him and then watched you until you disappeared," Mira explained, her eyebrows waggling.

"Probably not used to seeing me in a dress like this." Charlotte countered, smoothing her hands over her skirt. She pulled at the top of the dress where it clung a little too tightly for her taste.

"Whatever it was, he seemed intrigued, which for a man like him, is a step in the right direction." 

Charlotte sighed. 

Was he interested? Or was he simply reacting to a novel situation? The uneasiness with the entire situation started creeping back in. Mira placed her hand on top of Charlotte's. 

"You can do this. And if he doesn't take it, then at least you will know where you stand, right?"

Mira had used the argument repeatedly, telling Charlotte how it would be better to know something than to live with constant uncertainty. How even if he were to reject her, it would be easier in the long run than to always be wondering. 

Charlotte nodded and looked at the cake. She and Mira had spent a fair amount of time in the morning making it, and all of the others so no one else would guess what was going on. The task had been difficult given Charlotte's lack of cooking knowledge, and she would not admit how much fun she had trying, but now she hoped it would be enough. She hated the idea of giving him something which tasted bad or was ugly. She had seen the elaborate chocolates other women had given to their loved ones and felt her effort had been a failure.

What if he didn't like it? What if it was bad? 

Or maybe worse, what if he didn't get it? Surely he would know what it means. He has been a citizen of the kingdom for years, and it was a common tradition. 

Charlotte took a deep breath and stood once more. 

Do it now and get it over with, she told herself.

She picked up the cake and walked over to his table once more. He was still alone, though his plate of food was gone and he was nursing a second beer. 

"Ugh, tastes like watered down piss." He grimaced as he placed the stein on the table. Charlotte stood at the corner of the table hoping he would look up at her, or maybe hoping he wouldn't.

"Um, Yami?" 

His eyes shot up to her as she addressed him.

"Um, we, um, we had an extra cake and I thought you might want it." She hurriedly placed the dish on the table and pushed it over to him. Yami looked at it for a minute and then back up at Charlotte, who stood wringing her hands together. 

"Is that chocolate?" He lifted the plate to his face and sniffed at it.

"Yes. I, um, I made it actually."

"Are you trying to poison me?" He looked up at her suspiciously. The furious blush came back to Charlotte's cheeks. She sputtered as she tried to protest. 

"We made them for the party and everyone else seems fine." She indicated the group of women behind her. "As I said, it was extra." 

"Relax, I'm kidding. It smells good. Thanks." 

"Yes, well, you're welcome." Charlotte turned quickly and walked as fast as was socially appropriate back to the table. She didn't bother looking back at him. 

He hadn't understood at all.

She placed her head in her hands.

"I want to die." She muttered.

"Oh, now's not the time for that." Mira poked her in the shoulder. "He's eating it."

Charlotte glanced over her shoulder to see him pick one of the pieces of solid chocolate filigree from the top and pop it into his mouth. His face showed both surprise and satisfaction before he broke off another piece to eat as he waved over to a server to ask for a fork.

"It doesn't matter. He's as clueless as they come." 

"Well, he seems to be enjoying it regardless."

"There you are, Yami. I thought you would be in the gambling hall still." A frantic young man's voice cut through the din of too many conversations. Charlotte turned to the voice only to see Langris's brother rushing through the crowd toward his squad leader. 

"Run of bad luck almost ran out of money," Yami said with a full mouth to where he was nearly unintelligible. 

"If you're out of money, then how did you afford that cake?" 

"I didn't. Charlotte gave it to me."

"What?"

"Charlotte gave it to me," Yami said more clearly after swallowing. "It's really good."

The young man with tossed brown hair looked over toward the table of women. 

"Charlotte? You mean the captain of the Blue Rose Knights Charlotte?" the newcomer turned back to his captain.

"Yeah. She made it herself, she said." Yami took another bite of the cake.

"She did?" He looked from Yami to the table where the blue rose knights had gathered and back. "Really?"

"That's what she said."

"You, um, you know what that means, right?"

"That I have some damn delicious free cake."

Finral sighed and rubbed a hand over his eyes. 

"All these years wishing for something like this to happen to me, and he doesn't even know what's going on," he muttered as he looked over to the knot of women once more. One of them, a short brunette, eyed Yami suspiciously. Lady Charlotte sat with her back to them, but her blond head was bowed and even from the distance, Finral could read embarrassment in her slouch. 

"No, Yami..." Finral took a seat in the other chair at the table. "Do you even know what today is?"

"Payday."

"Well, yes, but... oh for crying out loud... Yami, it's valentine's day."

Yami stopped and looked at Finral, but the younger man could see that the captain didn't fully comprehend what he was trying to tell him. 

"You know, the celebration of lovers? When people tell share their feelings with those they care about?"

"Oh, that is today isn't it." Yami took another big bite of the chocolate cake. "You want some? I could get another spoon."

"Um, Lady Charlotte gave that to you, Yami."

"She said it was extra." Finral didn't believe that for a moment.

"I don't think you should be sharing it." 

"Suit yourself." Yami took another bite. He closed his eyes as the flavors hit his tongue--chocolaty and sweet but also just a bit salty, but not too much. Perfect, he thought.  
Finral watched him a moment as he relished in the flavors. He looked over at the women again. He could pick the captain out of the crowd easily. She was a beautiful woman and Finral could at least pride himself on his ability to spot a beautiful woman anywhere. The only problem was he thought all women were beautiful. 

But Charlotte Roselei was a beauty beyond compare. Even Finesse--who had a fine beauty of her own--was no match for the briar maiden. 

And today she looked especially lovely, even though Finral could only see her from behind. Her blond hair hung loosely to her shoulders and the clothes she wore were a rich royal blue, a brighter shade than her squad's robes, fully saturated and dazzling, like a sapphire spun into silk. Despite the chair partially obscuring his view, Finral could tell the outfit was well-tailored and designed to show off her feminine side. She was an unusually strange, but quite welcome sight for anyone who only knew her as a Magic Knight. 

"So, what do you think of Lady Charlotte, Yami?" Finral asked. Even if Yami hadn't realized what the cake meant, Finral knew. He decided to start digging for information. If only because he felt Charlotte deserved an answer. Not to mention his curiosity had been peaked by the situation.

"Charlotte? She's a good fighter."

Finral let out a frustrated sigh.

"I'm sure she is. After all, she is a captain. But what do you think about her as a person?"

Yami scrapped the spoon against the plate several times to leave no crumb uneaten. Finral watched as his face screwed up in thought.

"I dunno. We can hardly have a conversation without resorting to insults. I don't know if I would exactly call us friends or anything."

"But do you like her?"

"I guess?" Yami placed the spoon down on the table and used his finger to pick up any errant cake crumbs from the plate.

Finral rubbed his eyes. Yami apparently could not read between the lines. Or maybe the questions are too subtle? Finral thought.

"You know how I mean, right? Like what do you think about her looks? That sort of stuff."

Yami looked over at the table where she sat for the first time since Finral had arrived. 

"She looks like a woman."

"Do you think she's pretty?" Finral said more pointedly. Yami shifted in his seat. Was the captain nervous?

"What's with the questions, Finral?" Yami pulled a cigarette from his pouch and lit it. He stuck it between his lips and took a long drag, inhaling until his lungs were filled to bursting and then exhaling slowly.

Maybe he doesn't know anything, Finral thought. Or worse, maybe he doesn't feel anything.

"Um, Yami, you're probably going to kill me, but I have to ask, and I want you to remember that I'm your ride home before I do, alright?"

Yami sneered in annoyance at him as he inhaled once more on his cigarette. He blew the smoke in Finral's direction. To his credit, Finral simply waved the noxious fumes away.

"Okay then. Yami, you like girls, right? I mean, you're attracted to them, yeah?"

Yami shifted in his chair once more.

Yeah, he's definitely uncomfortable, Finral thought. The smoky air from the cigarette made it difficult to see, but as he leaned closer, Finral thought he saw the slightest of blushes on the captain's cheeks.

"What kind of silly question is that?"

"Right now, it's an important one. Are you attracted to women? I mean, it's no big deal if you aren't, but..."

"Well, yeah, usually."

"What else are you attracted to?"

"Fighting."

"I mean sexually." Finral bit his lower lip and pinched his face together. How could Yami be such a meathead?

"I... yeah, I like girls... women. I just... I don't have much experience." Yami's voice was low, nearly inaudible as if he were admitting something which brought him shame. Finral knew the feeling all too well, but where he made up for his lack of experience with bravado and a never back down attitude (at least with the ladies), Yami seemed to have closed himself off. Finral wondered if he was even aware of how he had cut himself off.

"Besides, who has time for anything like that." Yami waved the serving girl over again, stein in hand as a signal he wanted another drink.

"Right." Finral crossed his arms over his chest as he processed this new information. The server placed a fresh ale before Yami. She looked at the empty plate before looking from him to the table of women a few feet away. A small grin spread on the server's lips as she caught Finral's eye. 

"But all things being equal, what would you think of Charlotte? Not in a good fighter sort of way, but in a beautiful woman who might possibly be interested in you sort of way."

"There's no way she would be interested in me." Yami took a long drink from the stein.

Finral wanted to bang his head on the table. He pushed the chair back and stood up.

"I'll be right back." He looked over at the table of women once more before walking toward them.

Mira tapped Charlotte, who had finally started devouring her cake, on the arm. Charlotte looked up at the touch and wiped the rich, moist crumbs from her face as she turned to Mira with wide questioning eyes. Mira tilted her head to the young man approaching them. 

"Ugh, it's him." One of the younger women muttered, only to grimace as her fist hit the table hard. Mira glared at her before turning to the young man.

"Excuse me, Ladies." Finral started as he approached. 

"What do you want?" said the woman who had muttered earlier. "Because no one here is interested." 

"Actually, I have a message for Captain Charlotte." 

Charlotte turned to him wide-eyed, her fork sticking out of her mouth as she shoved another bite of cake into it. Her cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk storing nuts for the wintertime. 

If he thought anything of her appearance, he said nothing. 

"Well, spit it out." One of the women said. 

Finral cleared his throat. 

"I would rather say this privately, but... I want to apologize for how much of an idiot Yami is. Apparently, he didn't even know what today was or what your gift to him meant. Rest assured, I very much do. Don't worry, I'm going to work on him. Hopefully, he'll figure it out and will be able to respond in kind. But until then, I think you should know that he thought the cake was delicious." Finral gave Charlotte a tight smile before stalking back to the table where Yami was waving around his tankard and calling for another. Finral ripped the vessel from Yami's hand and slammed it on the table. He grabbed the large man by the arm and practically hauled him out of the tavern. 

"I promise I'll cover it!" he called over his shoulder as he pushed Yami out of the door.

Charlotte, Mira and the rest of the women from the Blue Rose Knights watched the incident in various states of shock. Charlotte, having finally gotten over her nervousness and currently starving, took another bite of the cake she held in her hand even as she turned in her chair. 

"Well, I guess the good news from all of this is at least the message didn't fall entirely on deaf ears," Mira said as the door slammed shut.

"But what did he mean when he said he would work on it?" Another asked.

"I don't know, but I'm curious." The woman who had seemed so put off by Finral's appearance said. "At least he didn't try to hit on anyone..." She muttered beneath her breath.  
Charlotte shoved another bite of cake in her mouth.

"What do you think, Charlotte?" Mira asked and the entire table turned to their captain expectantly, hoping for a new command or some tidbit which could lead them to their next step.

"He's right. This cake is delicious." She said after finishing her last bite. Charlotte licked the crumbs she had picked up from the fork before setting her plate down. The gathered women all looked at her and then at each other. 

"Looks like he's not the only one who needs to do some work," Mira muttered.


	2. In which Yami is a problem and Finral has a terrible idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finral tries to break through Yami's staunch belief that Charlotte hates him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the start of the White Day part of the story, but it ended up being much longer than I anticipated because apparently, even after living for at least fourteen years in the Clover Kingdom, Yami still has the socialization of a hermit... So, I'm breaking it into two parts.

"Explain it to me again?" Yami asked for what seemed like the hundredth time. Finral felt like he was going to scream. How could it be so hard for someone to understand?

Finral took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"As I told you before when a woman gives a man chocolate on Valentine's day, it means that she likes him."

"I don't believe you."

Finral grunted in frustration. He twisted the towel in his hands tightly in an effort not to scream.

"I mean, I believe you about the tradition and all that. But I don't think that's what was going on with Charlotte. She said it was an extra, why would she lie like that?"

"I don't know, Yami. Maybe she's nervous? Maybe she isn't sure you like her too? Maybe she wants to have a way out if it turns out you don't."

Yami looked at him skeptically over a glass of red wine. 

"Regardless, once a man receives the gift, he has to reciprocate. It's a tradition."

"Has to? Even if it wasn't meant to be a Valentine's gift?"

"Yes!" Finral slammed his glass down onto the table and picked up the half-filled wine bottle. He had been amazed when he found it stuck back on a shelf behind some sacks of rice. Vanessa must have not realized it was back there.

"Even if I don't like her back?"

Finral drained the cup and picked up the bottle once more. The discussion had been going on like this for days. Yami's logic, or lack thereof, had led to an ever-tightening of the spiral of debate.

"Yes. And the gift should be at least as nice as the one she gave. But if you do like her, it should be nicer."

Yami chewed on his lip before finishing off his cup and sliding it over to Finral to pour another glass.

"But that leads me to another question, one I've been trying to figure out for the last few days, Yami. Do you like her?"

Yami blinked at Finral a couple of times before he took a long drink. He placed his cup back on the table and took a cigarette out of his storage pouch. He lit its end and took a long drag, carefully, slowly exhaling and watching the smoke curl toward the ceiling.

"Stop stalling and answer the question, Yami."

"What was it again?"

Finral yelled and threw the empty wine bottle across the room where it shattered against the stone wall.

"Do. You. Like. Charlotte." Finral asked as he gritted his teeth. "And I mean in a romantic, attraction sort of way. Do you like her?"

Yami shrugged, but even in his drunken state, Finral could see Yami was hiding something.

"Let's say, she did like me, and you were right about all of this. What in the world could she possibly want from a guy like me?"

Finral slammed his hands down on the table and stood up. His head swam and he wobbled on his feet.

"I'm too drunk for this shit," Finral muttered as he gained enough stability to walk off. And he did, leaving Yami sitting at the table in the base alone. 

Yami took a deep inhale, drawing the smoke from the cigarette between his lips down into his lungs. He let the breath out slowly. Finral had been on him about the incident at the tavern since it happened. He kept insisting it meant more than what Yami had seen on its surface. 

Maybe it did, but Yami had no evidence to support the idea. 

He stood up himself, leaving the glasses on the table. Asta would clean it up later. He went to his room and landed heavily on the bed. He lay back and looked up at the ceiling for a moment before closing his eyes. He hoped the blackness of oblivion would greet him, only he was not so lucky. 

Finral had asked if he liked her. He had asked the question repeatedly, but Yami had no way of giving him an answer. So he found himself, not so much denying the question outright, as deflecting it. 

Since their meeting at the tavern, or maybe even before then, Yami had been unable to shake the sight of her face from his mind. Her face greeted him now as he closed his eyes. He wondered how many others her beauty had affected so deeply. He was certain he wasn't the only one. He had stumbled across her likeness captured in illustration or painting more than once in the black market. Some were nice likenesses, dignified and powerful, while others he knew had to be the products of the artist's imagination--or at least he could not imagine Charlotte would have consented to be drawn in such a lewd manner.

He rolled over to the side of the bed and fumbled with some papers laying on a table just barely within reach. Laying back once more, he looked at them. Each one had a sketch of her face. Some of the drawings had her smiling, some her cheeks were flushed, but mostly she wore the scowl of disapproval she seemed to show to him exclusively. His favorites were the drawings he had made after the few times he had seen her hair down. He liked the way it moved and flowed and how it hung around her face. He wondered if it was as soft to the touch as it seemed.

Her beauty had always captured his imagination. She was ethereal and pure. How could a being like her ever stoop to his base, immoral level?

No, he told himself again as he had told himself a thousand times. Whether he liked her or not was of no consequence. She was out of reach. 

But Finral's words nagged at him as they had for the last few days. He wouldn't admit it to the spatial mage though. He enjoyed watching him get frustrated too much.

Still, the cake that day had been a blessing in a way she could not have imagined. True, it had been payday. And like every payday, he had spent it gambling and drinking. He usually at least broke even, or close to it. But the goddess of luck had not been with him that day at all. From the very beginning, he found himself losing. He lost and lost and lost. He was thankful for the habit he had developed over the years of stashing at least enough for a cheap meal in his boot, or he might have lost everything. It had happened before and he had ended up cold, naked, and hungry as he made his way home. But it had been fun...

Still, he had lost everything when he walked into the tavern. The bartender did not even need to take his order; the daily special and a stein of the cheapest ale was sent to his table without comment. He had not even noticed the group of Blue Rose Knights sitting a few tables away. He had long learned to tune out the hubbub of places when he was in a funk. 

He probably would not have noticed her if she hadn't drawn his attention as she passed him. Her fingertips dragging along the table was enough to puncture the bubble he had built around him. 

And when he looked up at her... wow. He had thought she looked beautiful at the star festival--even if he had laughed as a way to save face. But when he saw her the other day he couldn't stop looking at her. As she passed, he followed her until she disappeared. And when she stopped to talk to him, he had to force himself to keep his attention on her eyes. 

But the way the dress hugged her body... He hadn't felt such a deeply stirred desire in a long time. Something about the way she stayed covered most of the time made moments where she was on display so much more striking. He wanted to touch her, but he was fairly certain he would have lost a hand if he had tried. 

And her eyes too seemed brighter, more open. Everything about her seemed more open since the spirit had possessed her, like something about the incident had changed her, or opened her eyes.

She was always beautiful, always strong, but that day in the tavern, she seemed divine.

Yami brushed his hand over the sketch he had made of her from the other day. Her hair hung down her back, slightly curled and pulled away from her face except for her braid. Her lips were stained red, a look which suited her at least as much as the more natural look she usually had; they were turned up in a small smile. Her cheeks had blushed at something he had said--they often did, he knew, and she had looked away from him. The image had burned itself into his soul, haunting him until he had put pencil to paper. 

But it haunted him still as he could not bring his gaze from it.

Had she it meant as Finral said when she had given him the cake? When she had offered it to him, he felt like he had been given a shift in his luck. And it was delicious on top of simply being free. Was it meant to be a confession of love?

He looked at the drawing again, trying to replay the incident which had seared itself into his mind, but he could not remember the details. He could not remember what was said to make her look as she did in his memory.

"Reciprocation, huh?" What could he do to return the admiration?

***

Finral had made the decision as soon as he had walked out of the base, but once he stood looking up at the Blue Rose headquarters, he immediately regretted the path of action he had chosen. But he still ventured forth for lack of a better idea.

"I should never make any decisions while drunk." he reminded himself, knowing he would likely forget the resolve by the time he sobered up. He walked up to the large doorway marking the main entrance to the building and knocked loudly. A few of the squad members tending a nearby garden poked their heads up to see the source of the noise. 

"Can I help you?" A junior member of the squad asked as she opened the door. Her eyes flicked down to the crest on his robe before she met him with narrow eyes. 

"Yes, I need to speak to you captain."

"Captain Charlotte is out currently. I'm assuming this is official business?"

"Um, Yeah." Finral lied. As official as matters of the heart can be, he thought. The girl narrowed her eyes somewhat before rolling them and standing aside.

"The Vice-Captain is here. You can talk to her." She said as she motioned for him to follow her. 

Finral had to stop in his tracks for a moment as he stepped inside the building. Though it had very nice architecture on the outside, the inside was downright palatial. It reminded him, in many ways, of his father's home growing up, only everything was decorated with a floral theme suited to the squad of knights who called it home.

Finral let out a low whistle as they walked through the foyer into the main part of the building and then through it to a well-manicured garden he had been able to barely glimpse from the front of the building. 

"The Vice-Captain is taking her tea in the gazebo. Tell her what you need to tell her and leave quickly. She's a busy woman."

With her instructions given, the young woman turned and left him alone in the expansive green space. The gazebo she had pointed out stuck out like a glistening white jewel against the sea of green shrubbery. Finral walked toward it, realizing with every step his decision to come here had been a terrible idea. 

He could just turn around and walk away. He could pretend it never happened and go back to explaining to Yami that he was wrong about everything and how he should take a chance on Lady Charlotte.

"May I help you?" A voice called out from the gazebo when he was just over halfway there. Too late to run now. He closed the distance, not wanting to be overheard on the off chance he had read the signs completely wrong. 

"Um, hi, I mean, yes. I... This is going to sound ridiculous," He peered into the gazebo at the short woman sitting at the table. She was the same woman seated next to Lady Charlotte at the tavern. Finral straightened, feeling a little more confident knowing she had also been a witness to the event. 

"Oh, good, maybe it won't sound so ridiculous." He muttered under his breath after seeing her.

"Can you please speak plainly?" Her brown eyes were sharp but not cruel as they stared up at him but somehow managed to make him feel as if she were looking down on him.

"Yes, sorry. I'm having a bit of a problem. You see, my Captain, he doesn't believe me when I try to tell him what the cake meant the other day. And I guess I'm starting to doubt it myself."

"You want me to confirm Captain Charlotte's actions?" She looked at him with raised eyebrows. 

"I want you to confirm the symbolism of her actions," Finral said with far more confidence than he felt. "Does she like Yami?"

The short woman tapped a pen against the table where she was working while taking her tea and looked out in the garden for a moment. She offered Finral a seat as she looked back at him.

"Charlotte has a great many strong emotions she doesn't quite know how to or want to handle sometimes. Her feelings for your Captain, for example, are especially strong. She tends to wall off such emotions, to hide them from everyone. She only recently told us how she felt."

"How does she feel?"

"She's in love with him. Or she thinks she is anyway."

"You doubt her?"

The woman shook her head.

"No. She feels something for him. Maybe only a lustful attraction, but frankly speaking, she could use a little physical release, if you know what I mean. I've never seen her as uptight as she has been in the past week or so."

"I see. Yami, on the other hand, seems as clueless as anyone could get. I'm starting to wonder if he's ever been with a woman, or if he's interested in women at all."

"Oh, he seemed pretty interested before you showed up."

"Really?"

"Yes, um... what was your name again?"

"Finral, and I never got yours either."

"Mira. Would you like some tea, Finral?"

"Oh, thank you. Frankly, I could probably use something stronger than tea, but considering Yami and I polished off a bottle of wine before I came here, tea is probably the better choice."

Mira chuckled and the facade of the Blue Rose Vice-Captain fell away. 

Are all the women here incredible beauties? Finral thought, only to chastise himself. His determination to stay true to Finesse was strong, but he often had to remind himself of it.   
She turned over a teacup and poured a swirl of rich, steaming, golding liquid from a small pot.

"You said Yami seemed interested?" Finral picked up the delicate cup and lifted it to his lips. The tea was fragrant, filling his nose with a spiciness he had not expected.

"Well, he did do a double-take as she walked past him before watching her until she disappeared. He even tried craning his neck a bit after she vanished into a hallway. And then when she came back and started talking to him... well, she didn't say anything, I doubt she even noticed, but everything about his body language screamed more than just colleagues." 

"And yet I've pestered him about it and he says it's impossible, that they fight like cats and dogs, or can't have a conversation without resorting to insulting each other."

Mira chuckled. 

"Foreplay."

"What?"

"They don't realize it, but they're flirting. I can't even count the number of times Charlotte's come back from a mission where they've run into each other. She would go into great detail about what he said to her and how she responded... She could barely remember the rest of what happened though. It didn't make much sense until she finally shared her feelings with us. And now, after seeing them together? Now I'm even more certain."

Finral thought back to the few times he had seen them interact. He couldn't remember many, but during one mission he had gone on with Yami, he remembered them bickering--calling each other stupid and weak, but at the end, Yami said something which had shocked him. He had practically proposed to her. Of course, everyone thought he was joking, teasing, because she had been so mean to him earlier in the fight, but now Finral wondered if there wasn't more to his words. 

And the Star Festival... He only heard about it after the fact from Asta, but apparently, Vanessa had goaded the Blue Rose Captain into a drinking contest. Neither won, as Vanessa had been too drunk to even start, and Charlotte had not managed to finish her beer. But a part of the tale was a little outlandish to Finral. Apparently, Yami had finished the beer Charlotte could not, taking it from her even before she passed out. But when asked to elaborate, Yami only said he hated to see the beer go to waste. A fair point, but was there more to it?

"You think so?" All the thinking and the potent tea had started to sober him up.

"I can't speak to your captain, but I think at least on Charlotte's part, yeah."

Finral let out a sound somewhere between a groan and a growl. 

"Dammit, why does Yami have to be so difficult to make sense of? It's not like I have the time to make him understand... We're leaving for the Heart Kingdom in a few days, and I can't trust him to not screw this up. He'll probably forget all about White Day as soon as I'm gone."

"I hadn't thought about it much, but it might break Charlotte's heart if she never gets an answer from him." Mira sighed as she placed her cup onto the table. "I'm the one who convinced her to give him something for Valentine's Day. I told her she would feel better to know something one way or the other... Only now it seems things have gotten more muddled. And it's all my fault."

"Don't fault yourself for Yami being a dense meathead."

"So what are we going to do? After all, you said you're leaving soon, and it would be rather weird if I started randomly showing up at your base."

"I don't know, but we need to do something. I think if he accepts the fact the cake held a message, he might do something about it, one way or the other, as you said. But he's being so stubborn and I don't know why. Like, this is more stubborn than his usual."

Mira tapped her finger on her chin for a minute as she considered her courses of action. Her eyes lit up and she leaned forward on the table.

"I have an idea. Charlotte might kill me for it, but I have an idea. Stay here." Mira pushed back from the table and darted through the garden to the main building. Finral watched as she disappeared into the structure before sipping his tea. He had finished the cup by the time she returned. She dropped a small leather-bound book onto the table making the teacups rattle on the saucers with the impact. 

"I'm sure we can find the proof your captain needs here." Mira started thumbing through the pages. At one point her eyes grew wide.

"What is that?" Finral's curiosity got the better of him and he leaned over the table trying to see on the other side of the book.

"Charlotte's diary and oh boy, I didn't know you were this creative, girl. Some of this is... steamy." She turned the book toward her new partner in crime. "If this is any indication, she definitely has a thing for him. I mean, she uses his name and everything."

Finral blushed.

"I didn't think you could do that with magic."

"I don't know where she gets her ideas, but they are... intriguing."

"Yami needs to see this," Finral said after skimming the rest of the page. He turned to Mira, his face a brilliant red. "If this doesn't convince him, then nothing will."

"I don't know. Charlotte will kill me if it goes missing." Mira closed the book and ran her hand over the cover. "But it is for a good cause." She slid the book across the table to Finral.

***

Yami walked into his bedroom after a trip to the gambling hall and noticed something was out of place, but he couldn't quite tell what it was. Someone had been in there, he knew for a fact. The whole atmosphere of the place felt spoiled, contaminated as he stepped through the door. Having the room to himself was a luxury he had never thought to have as a kid, so now, he could not stand anyone intruding into his private space. It was bad enough he had to share the bathroom with the rest of the squad.   
He unbuckled his belt and removed his sword and grimoire, laying the leather strappings and satchel on a chest against one wall. He landed heavily on the thin bed and was ready to lay down when his hand brushed something which should not have been there. Had someone defiled his sanctum to put it here? He pulled back the thin sheet which had been tossed over it and saw a small book. His brow furrowed as he picked it up. The cover was plain, light brown leather. It was well used, with soft patches worn into it from countless moments of handling. The only adornment was a small black stain on the back, likely from a spilled drop of ink. 

"What the hell?" Yami muttered as he turned the book over in his hands observing it once more. He flipped through the pages with his thumb and watched as page after page of handwritten text blurred into black lines before him. He had never seen the book before in his life, but he knew what it had to be. Somehow, someone's personal journal found its way into his room. 

The book had no name or other identifying features aside from the stain. 

Yami started skimming pages for a clue to its owner. As he looked more closely at the words on the page, he noticed something strange. He noticed his name showing up. Repeatedly. 

He read a little more deeply and his eyes grew wide at the descriptions of physical acts the author wished him to do. Yami had to admit, the descriptions were rather explicit. He licked his lips as he read them, curious now as to who wanted him to do such things to her. As he read, he became more and more certain the author was a woman. He had to admit, some of what she wanted sounded quite fun and piqued his interest. 

He turned the page to the next entry.

Where the previous one had been full of hot lustful passion, the next was business-like, serious and work-related. 

And then he knew. 

He closed the book and held it between both of his hands.

He was a flurry of thoughts and emotions and he could not quite slow his mind down enough to sort them out. First and foremost, how did Charlotte's journal get into his room? Second, what the hell? Did she think that way about him? Third, was Finral right? 

Yami took a deep breath and let it out slowly before lighting a cigarette. He closed his eyes, letting the smoke clear his mind. One thing he knew for certain, the book had to get back to her. He couldn't keep it. The other thing he knew was most likely a fact is that he was a dead man if she found out he had read it. And it was likely whoever helped it get to him would also be dead.

But how to get it back to her. The stuff in it was unexpectedly racy. Stuff like it could ruin her reputation if it got out. Especially her fantasizing about him of all people. Could he trust one of the idiots with something like this? The kid seemed pretty trustworthy, and Noelle was about as straightlaced as you could get, but both were getting ready to head out for special training or something. Finral could get there quick, but Yami didn't quite trust him, or the others.

Yami sighed. 

"What a pain." He stood up, placed the book on the chest, swapping it for his belt. After strapping his sword and grimoire back to his waist, he picked up the book once more. He couldn't trust anyone with this. He barely trusted himself. He wanted to open it again and find another section where he was mentioned. He was curious how many times she talked about him, in a bawdy way or not. 

And mostly, he was nervous, given what he had read. He stopped in his tracks and looked back at the scattered drawings on the floor next to the bed and the back to the book in his hand. 

He realized she thought about him as much as he thought about her. The writing made it evident. He opened the book to another random page, only to see his name appear there as well. The context was less explicit, but no less in the sense of longing. He turned to random page after random page, only to see the same. He closed the book once more and placed it on the to of the chest. He picked up the sketches and leafed through them searching for the perfect one. Satisfied, he removed one sheet, folded it in half and placed it within the book. The rest of the drawings, he placed on the chest before picking up the book and turning toward the door once more.  
Maybe she would scoff at him, maybe they really were too different, but if she thought of him as her journal seemed to indicate, she deserved to know he thought of her too.

***

Yami knocked on the door at the Blue Rose Knights headquarters and was met by a smiling young woman. 

"Oh, Captain Yami, what brings you here?" The girl's eyes glittered with excitement. "Are you looking for Captain Charlotte?" Her smile seemed to grow wider.

"I am actually. I have something for her."

The girl bit her bottom lip and made a sort of excited squeal before recovering her composure.

"Come this way please."

He followed her through the ornate interior of the building to a small table in an antechamber. 

"Please have a seat. I'll fetch some tea and tell the Captain you're here." The girl scurried off with a sort of skip in her step.

"What is it with everyone and tea. Why doesn't anyone ever offer a nice wine when I drop by?" He muttered without taking a seat. Instead he wandered the room, clutching the book in one hand. The space was less ornate than the main hall, but it was tastefully furnished in dark woods and rich velvets. One look was all he needed to know the wealth of the brigade which the building housed. The group was older, more established, and a fair bit more orthodox than his ragtag group of misfits, even if they only rarely accepted men into their fold.

He ran his hand over the deep carving in the door frame--a twisting vine of roses creaping to the ceiling, when he felt her enter the room from the other door.

"Yami?" She sounded surprised, but not unhappy. He thought it odd at first, given their usual interactions, but then the corner of his lips quirked upward as he remembered what he had read. 

He turned from his examination of the woodwork to face her. She had her hair down as she had the last time he saw her, but she had traded the dress which had showed off her femininity as well as her ample form for her usual armor. 

"I, um, I have something I think belongs to you."

He walked across the small room toward her and held out the small book for her to take. She looked at the book in his hand and then back up to him several times with confusion growing ever more evident on her face. 

"How?" She started as she took the book and cradled it against her chest.

"I don't know how it got there, but I found it in my room."

The look of shock on her face was priceless, but fleeting as anger took over. She muttered something under her breath, too low for him to hear. She pressed her lips into a thin angry line.

"Thank you for bringing it back to me."

"Sure. Um. Yeah." He hadn't thought of anything he might say, or might ask given what he read and now regretted it, because now he felt like he sounded stupid. Usually he didn't let how he sounded to other bother him. Usually he didn't give a flying fuck. 

But given what he read and how she seemed to feel, he suddenly felt the urge to impress her somehow, to show her that her fantasies were not merely products of her imagination. 

He wanted to do the things she had written about.

"So I guess I'll go now." He turned to walk away.

"You, um, you didn't read it, did you?" She called after him and he froze. He didn't want to lie to her. He shouldn't lie to her, but he also didn't want to betray her trust. He turned back to her and shook his head.

"Only enough to see who it belonged to. You should really write your name in it though." Yami rubbed the back of his neck. His face felt warm.

"This is very personal stuff."

"I only skimmed it enough to find out it was yours. I barely even looked at the words."

Charlotte huffed and tightened her grip on the book.

"Though I did notice my name in there quite a bit."

Charlotte's face reddened and her eyes widened before she looked away from him.

"I must really get under your skin sometimes." He kicked the floor with the toe of his boot. "I mean, I do it on purpose, you know."

"Do what?" 

How exactly was he supposed to answer that? He silently cursed his mouth for not connecting to his brain and his brain for not having some semblance of a plan before his mouth started moving. 

"Oh, you know. The teasing and stuff." He couldn't look at her though he could feel her eyes on him. "You're too easy of a mark, Charlotte. You're always so quick to react." 

He felt himself smile. He wanted to look up at her. He wanted to tell her more. To tell her how he couldn't stop thinking about her in the hours after they happened upon each other, either at a meeting called by Julius, some mission, or randomly in town sometime. Sometimes she would stay in his thoughts for days, until he replaced her with wine or cards. He wanted to tell her how he hid his feelings too, from her, from his squad, from himself, he realized.

But he held back. 

"Well, I should go." He turned to leave.

"Yami, wait." She took a step forward. When he met her eyes, she seemed to have unspoken words fighting to free themselves from her lips. 

"Why did you come all this way yourself?" 

The question was fair. He could have easily had wrapped the book up and sent it over with one of his squad. He should have been able to trust them enough. 

"No one else was around." Another lie.

"I... see." She looked down at the book in her arms. "Well, thank you."

"Sure." Yami turned and hurried away, lest he linger too long and he say more than he meant.

***

Charlotte watched the closed door for a long while, wondering if he might return. Hoping he might turn around and walk through it. He had acted strangely, like he knew more than he wanted to admit or that he had more to say than he was able. 

"This is silly." She said aloud to herself before turning back to her office. She had a million things to do, and waiting for Yami Sukehiro to figure out her feelings was at the bottom of the list. She was about to close the door when Mira called her name. The sound startled her out of the mental recitation of her tasks for the day. She dropped the journal she hand tucked under one arm. As the book hit the ground, something slipped out of it. 

"Don't do that, Mira!" Charlotte crouched down to retrieve the book and the object which had come out of it. The fall should not have been enough to break the binding, she thought as she picked up the sheet of paper.

"What? Address you before talking to you?" The vice captain asked. Charlotte sighed. She couldn't tell Mira why she had been so lost in her thoughts. 

"Anyway. I saw the captain of the Black Bulls leaving. Anything interesting happen? You two talk?"

"If by interesting you mean to ask if he came to confess his feelings for me, I'm sorry to disappoint you. He just came to return this." She held up the book, but kept looking at the sheet of paper in her other hand. The consistency of the page was different from the pages in the book. No, she thought, this page came from somewhere else. 

So why was it there?

"What's that?" Mira asked, pointing at the paper.

"I don't know. It fell out of the book." Charlotte shrugged as she opened the creased page which should not have been there in the first place. She gasped as she saw herself on it. Mira moved closer to peak. 

"Oh wow." Mira said softly. "That's a really good likeness."

"Yeah. It's beautiful." Charlotte was awestruck. The image was most definitely her, but she had never posed for a picture like this. She had not posed for a picture since she had left her parent's home, in fact, and all of those had been paintings. This was more of a sketch, though it was shaded with various colors to highlight her eyes and lips. 

"It was in the book, you said?" 

Charlotte nodded.

"I have no idea how it got into my journal though."

Mira flinched out the corner of Charlotte's eye.

"Mira? What's going on?" Charlotte may have a reputation as a cut and dry man hater, but one thing she knew well was subtlety. She may have missed the blanching of Mira's face earlier when the Vice Captain saw the book, but the recent reaction was one she could read as plain as day. 

"What do you mean?"

"Why did Yami have my journal?" Charlotte looked her square in the eye.

Mira chuckled.

"Well, you see, that's a funny story. And I'll tell it to you, I promise. But first, who do you think drew this picture of you? It looks like how you were dressed from the other day."  
Charlotte glanced at the drawing in her hand and saw what Mira meant. The way her hair was styled and the richness of the lines around her eyes and the color on her lips were all reminiscent of how she had been made up for the failed attempt to confess her feelings to Yami. 

"Don't try to change the subject, Mira."

"I bet he drew this. I mean, who else could have? And he had the book last, didn't he?" Mira winked at her.

"I know what you are trying to do. And it's not going to work." Charlotte glared at her, wondering again how Yami had gotten his hands on the journal.

"What do you mean?" Mira said innocently, blinking her eyes before cracking up. "Gods, you are so serious."

"He had my journal." Charlotte said through gritted teeth. "And I'm starting to believe you had a hand in him getting it. There were some very personal things in there."

"Oh I know there were." Mira muttered.

Charlotte's face flushed red with anger and embarrassment. Mira had admitted her guilt with the utterance. Charlotte pressed her lips together in a thin, angry line and turned sharply on her heel before striding into her office and slamming the door shut behind her. She leaned heavily against the solid wood of the door and squeezed her eyes shut as hot tears slid down her face. 

He said he hadn't looked, and she had no reason to think otherwise. She should trust him, but still she felt betrayed. Not by him, as much as by Mira. Charlotte was sure of it now. Her vice captain, her confidant, her best friend had betrayed her, and now she couldn't be certain about anything.

She slid down the door until she was doubled over, clutching her knees to her chest. The book, having fallen from her grip, lay open beside her with the folded up sketch covering her writing. Charlotte sobbed into her knees until her eyes burned. She turned her head and pressed her cheek into her knee as she looked at the book beside her. She picked up the drawing and unfolded it. The image looked far prettier than she had ever felt. She wondered if it was even her, though Mira had been certain. 

"How did you get here?" She asked the portrait, knowing it would give her no answer.

***

Yami walked into the house feeling uneasy. Something about the entire situation felt off for some reason, like more needed to be said, but wasn't. It made his gut churn. But then, to be honest, most things did. As he passed through the common room where most of the squad was goofing off on his way to the toilet, Finral called out to him.

"Yami? Have you seen a book lying around? It's about so big," He gestured with his hands the approximate size of the journal. "Brown leather cover, kind of worn? You haven't seen it, have you?" Finral's words were rushed and nervous, more so than usual. 

"What kind of book?" Yami took the cigarette from between his lips and blew out a stream of smoke. If the situation made him feel uneasy, Finral's ki made him suspicious. 

"I just told you. Sort of small, brown, worn... I think it might have gotten put in your room by mistake."

Yami looked at him. Finral glanced up, but withered under the weight of Yami's intense glare.

"By mistake, huh? Was it a novel or something?"

Finral opened his mouth to speak before looking back to the floor. He fidgetted and wrung his hands.

"No, it was... a little more personal."

Yami stared at him a moment longer.

"Alright, fine. It was a journal."

"I never would have pegged you the type to keep a journal."

More fidgeting, more hand wringing as Finral tried to chuckle in a carefree sort of way. He failed.

"I didn't say it was my journal, did I, Yami?" Finral gave a nervous laugh. Yami nodded his head slowly as pieces clicked together in his mind. All the times recently Finral had tried to convince him of Charlotte's true intentions. How he had insisted on not sharing at the tavern and how he had stormed over to the table where she had sat. His furious departure after their shared bottle of wine earlier in the day. 

Yami grabbed Finral's arm and dragged him out of the common space. He pushed him against the hallway wall, just out of sight of the door.

"How the hell did you get Charlotte's journal?" He hissed around his cigarette.

"Um, how did you know it was hers? Did you read it? I mean, after all the trouble, I hope you read it." Finral said at a mile a minute.

Yami let him go with a huff. He took his cigarette out from between his lips and blew the smoke into Finral's face, making the younger man cough. 

"How did you get it, Finral?"

"If I tell you, will you tell me if you read it?"

Another stream of smoke to the face was Yami's only answer. 

"Fine." Finral coughed. "Her Vice Captain gave it to me."

"Now why would she do something like that?"

"Did you read it?"

"I read enough."

"Did you get to the good parts?"

Yami looked at the cigarette in his hand. Images conjured by the words she had written sprang unbidden into his mind. When he looked back at Finral, the younger man was grinning.

"Oh, you did!" 

Yami's hand at his throat silenced Finral's excitement. 

"I read enough. Now you're going to tell me why you and the Blue Rose Vice Captain went through all this trouble."

"Isn't it obvious? It's like I've been telling you since the tavern. She likes you. A great deal apparently." Finral croaked out.

Yami let him go. He looked at his cigarette, now burned to its end, and tossed it on the floor before stubbing it out with his toe. Finral coughed once more.

"Now the real question is, and I've been trying to figure this out for a while, how do you feel about her?"

Yami lit another cigarette, took a deep inhalation on it before blowing out a cloud of smoke in the hallway. 

It was a good question. How did he feel about her? She was pretty, sure, beautiful even, but did she ignite his passion as he apparently ignited hers? He respected her, of course, but did he feel something more? 

He furrowed his brow as Finral waited with bated breath for an answer Yami could not provide. Yami sighed and walked down the hall to his room. He scrounged around for some blank paper and his pencil. He thought maybe he should get a sketch book one day as his hand began to fly lightly across the scrap of paper he had found leaving traces, marks, and smudges which eventually formed her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am well aware of the numerous grammar errors here. I am falling asleep at the keyboard as I try to post this.


	3. Cake... Take two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Yami comes to terms with feelings and knowledge and maybe, just maybe admits Finral was right... at least indirectly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yami, as a character, is extremely stoic and does not show his feelings. Which makes it difficult to work out how he might come to terms with things he's pushed aside. I hope he doesn't seem too out of character.

Yami walked out of his room feeling a little sheepish, and hungry, and in the need of a stiff drink, but he made his way over to Finral instead of seeking out the pleasures which let his mind go dull. The spatial mage was trying to hold a conversation with Gordon when Yami walked up. The attempt at conversation immediately stopped as both men looked up at their captain. 

"So, um, when is this day you were telling me about?" Yami stared between them, unable to meet either of their eyes, but he did not miss the grin which erupted on Finral's face.

"I knew it." The younger man said with a whoop of triumph. 

"Knew what?" Gordon mumbled, his dark eyes moving between the two. 

"Blink or something, Gordon, you're creeping me out," Yami said around his cigarette. 

"I knew you liked her. I mean, you had to. Who wouldn't? Especially after the journal and..." Finral's words were cut off with a croak.

"I figured I should at least apologize for what happened, for what you made happen." Yami released the spatial mage from the death grip he had on him. Finral's face drained of color as he waited for the captain's next verdict, but Yami only unfolded a sheet of paper and looked at it. In doing so, he tried to keep his face neutral, but he could not help the sigh which escaped his lips. 

"Besides, you said it was tradition to reciprocate, right? So how am I supposed to do that?"

"Right, well the day is tomorrow and we don't have much time, especially if you want to have an even exchange." Finral started. Yami could see his mind working faster than he could follow as he took a seat at the table. He laid the paper he had held in his hand on the surface, folding it, hiding it.

"I guess that's what I want."

"You don't sound too sure, Yami." 

"What do you have there, Captain?" Gordon asked barely above the sound of Vanessa snoring in the background. Yami glared at him and pulled the paper toward him protectively before he took a deep breath. Finral had been right all along; he did like her. He always had. As Finral had said, who wouldn't? Yami unfolded the sketch he had just finished and looked at it before laying it on the table for anyone to see. 

"Captain, it's beautiful." The words were an exclamation from Gordon, meaning he could only just barely hear them enough to understand.

"Yami..." Finral looked from the drawing to his superior. 

"I had no idea she could ever think of me as more than a scandalous comrade who only got his position because he was the protege of the new boss." Yami chuckled. "Though I guess that says more about me than her, huh? I can't believe I was so clueless all this time." He looked up at the two men staring back at him and took a long drag on the cigarette jutting out from his lips. "But don't expect much from this. It's an apology for you stealing her journal, Finral. Nothing else."

Gordon looked at Finral who looked back at him and shrugged. 

"It was just because you wouldn't believe me when I said she liked you," Finral said to Yami before looking to Gordon to explain. "Can you believe it, Gordon? She gave him a homemade chocolate cake on Valentine's day and he didn't even know what that meant."

"That does sound like something the Captain would do," Gordon mumbled barely above the threshold of hearing.

"It makes me wonder though, how many other times she's tried to confess her feelings for him but he was too dense to pick up on it." Finral tapped his chin in thought and Yami wanted to rip the spatial mage's spine through his throat. Finral must have noticed the murderous intent in Yami's eyes as he cleared his throat and changed the topic.

"So, Yami, what kind of thing were you thinking of giving her?" 

"I don't know. If I did, I wouldn't ask you."

"Chocolates are traditional, and I'm sure you will be able to find something in the shops if you go now."

"It's not enough." He admitted flatly. Since he had read the passage in her journal, since she had given him the cake in fact, he had not been able to shake the thought of her. He couldn't say it out loud, had not been able to give it voice, but he realized only now how much she had meant to him all this time.

Finral tapped his lips in thought before he called out for Charmy. The tiny woman poked her head up from behind a pile of grub on another table at the summons. Finral hurried over to her and they sat in a quiet conference for a short time before she let out a characteristic "La!" and summoned her sheep.

"Don't worry, Captain! We'll help you whip up something mummy!" 

Yami took a slow deep breath on his cigarette.

"Who's worried?" But his voice seemed to indicate he was quite worried indeed. 

***

"I don't think this is a good idea," Yami said with a tinge of anxiety creeping into his voice. His heart raced and his palms were sweaty. Had he been asked a few days ago if he would be able to confront her about her feelings, and address his own, he would have said it was no problem. But now? Now it was a problem.

"You'll be fine, Yami. You've talked to Charlotte hundreds of times." Finral patted him on the back.

"Yeah, but not like this." 

He looked up at the building which housed the Blue Rose Knights. They stood on the outside of a garden hedge fence and stared through an arched gateway. The last time he had been here was to return her journal. On that day, his eyes had been opened at how she felt for him. Somehow learning everything he had known was a lie only made things more difficult. Joking with her before about how he felt had been easy since he assumed she could never feel the same way. No pressure. He would say something rude or crass, and she would insult him and they would go about their business.

But now, he didn't know what to expect.

"Maybe we should come back some other time? Or... or set something up in another location?"

Finral had started pushing him at this point, trying to get the meat slab of a man through the archway. 

"Just go in there and give her the box, Yami," Finral grunted as the captain did not even budge from his efforts. "If it seems too hard, just remember you are here to apologize."

"Right. Apologize for your idiocy."

"Go." Finral moved to the gate having given up his effort to force the larger man through. He pointed toward the building while fixing his captain with a glare. 

Yami looked at the box in his hands and took a deep breath. Just apologize, he told himself as he took the first step. 

The garden was deserted. He had been able to tell from the other side of the hedge, but within the green space now felt eerie, as if eyes in the distance were watching him.   
He tried not to seem too hurried, nor too reluctant, but the feeling of being watched made his skin crawl. Before long, he stood at the large double doors at the top of a small flight of stairs. He stared at the deep carvings on the wood as he summoned the will to knock. 

"This doesn't have to be my problem right now." He muttered as he started to turn away from the door. Finral's glare burned him from across the garden and he turned back. He cradled the box against his chest and knocked on the door. "Maybe no one's home," he said to himself hopefully before the door cracked open. The young woman who answered the door was different than the one from before, but she wore the same expression of excitement when she saw him. 

"Captain Yami? Are you looking for the Captain?"

"I, uh, yeah."

"Is that for her?" The girl's excitement grew more annoying with each passing moment. 

"Now listen here..." Yami started letting his anger get the better of him.

"Yami?" Charlotte called from a staircase on the other side of the main hall. She was dressed in a light blue gown, similar to what she wore while in recovery after the possession.   
Her hair hung loose and straight around her face. She looked tired even from the distance. "What are you doing here?" 

"I have something for you." He held out the box. "I felt bad after I found out how your journal got in my room, and..."

"Come on then. I'm about to have some tea. Would you join me?"

She asked him, with no hesitation and no nervousness, and Yami nodded, wondering if he was seeing the true, honest version of Charlotte Roselei. She walked ahead of him through the building into the well-manicured garden in the back. The front of the building had been nice, but the back garden was expansive. Yami let out a low whistle as he took in the extensive field of green cut through with brilliant white stone paths. Charlotte led him to a small alcove grown over with creeping vines where a table sat paired with two chairs. The set up reminded him of the restaurant where they had shared a meal before, only this time it was more private. 

"I didn't know the garden was so big." Yami peeked around the edge of the trellis on which the vines grew to take in the perfection and symmetry of the land. 

"It's lovely, isn't it? I love sitting out here. It's a good place to think."

"Yeah, I bet it is." He pulled his attention back to the task at hand. Charlotte's gaze was focused on him, staring at him so their eyes met as he turned to her. She seemed washed out, ill. Even more so now that he saw her up close. 

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. It's been... a rough couple of days." Her soft smile seemed exhausted and worn.

"Then I won't keep you long." He reached out and opened the box top to reveal an exquisitely crafted white chocolate cake topped with a delicate blue rose made from hardened spun sugar. "I was told I should thank you for the cake the other day, and I wanted to apologize for my squad member's role in the appearance of your journal in my room."

She held his eyes the entire time he spoke, a feeling which made him shift slightly in his seat. But when she did finally look down into the box, Charlotte gasped. A small, elaborately decorated white cylindrical base sat topped with the most delicate looking rose she had ever seen. Something that looked like a string of pearls lined the sides of the object alternating in blue and white, and a line of gold scallops sat between each row of beads. The smell coming from the box was as divine as the object's appearance.

"This is beautiful, Yami. Thank you." She touched one of the petals on the rose as gently as she could, fearing it might crumble beneath a weight. Surprisingly, it held fast.

"It's the least I could do after everything."

The look Charlotte gave him was one of disbelief. He rubbed the back of his neck and tore his eyes from her face.

"I mean, aside from the journal issue and all, you helped me out the other day." 

"What do you mean?" Charlotte closed the lid, her attention fully on him once more.

"Well, at the tavern, I'd had a pretty bad day. But when you came over with that cake, I don't know, it felt like my luck changed." He looked over to see her leaning on her hand, her elbow propped up on the table. She smiled at him softly. Her other hand lay flat on the table.

"Lost all your pay gambling again?" She had asked him the question numerous times before, but never like this. Her voice was wry, almost playful instead of the disapproval to which he was accustomed. He looked at her for a long moment, memorizing the tilt of her head and the slight upturn of her lips. If he had thought she was at her most beautiful in the tavern, he had been wrong. So very wrong. Something in the way she looked and spoke at this moment was more open, more genuine than she had ever seemed before. He wanted to capture the look forever. He wanted to see more over it.

His heart started racing as his eyes traveled over her face. Her hand was so close, halfway across the table, would be so easy to touch. He licked his lips as his focus landed back on the box between them. 

"Yeah, well. Can't win 'em all, I guess."

She chuckled and his attention shot back to her face. He didn't think she could have gotten more beautiful, but she did. Her smile had widened, her cheeks grew flushed, bringing color back to her wan face. She tucked her hair behind her ear before meeting his eyes again. She wetted her lips. Her chest seemed to heave with every breath. She looked at the box once more.

"Would you?" She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Would you share this with me?" Her voice shook slightly as she asked. Her eyes flicked toward him and then away again.  
Did he want to? Absolutely. He licked his lips again, feeling a tingling in his skin. He placed his hand on the table next to hers, slightly touching. He couldn't help it, he wanted to lay his hand over hers, to wrap hers in his fingers. He wanted to pull her toward him across the table, to brush his fingers against her face and run them through her hair. He wanted to kiss her, and not for the first time, but now the desire was about to overwhelm him.

"Sure." His voice sounded rough, breathless in his ears. 

Her cheeks reddened as they had so often when he talked to her, a response he now saw he had misread for years. He swallowed hard at the surprised, yet satisfied smile gracing her lips. Her hand brushed his, her smallest finger sliding over his skin as she stood up and pulled away.

"Let me go get some utensils then." She ran her finger around her ear, tucking strands of hair that had come free away from her face. Her fingers traced her jaw and down her neck slightly. His breath came faster as he watched the motion, and then how she nibbled on her bottom lip before she turned away. She glanced over her shoulder once as if checking to see he had not disappeared.

Yami took a deep breath and clenched his hands into fists. He exhaled slowly as he spread his fingers out on the table. He did so once more, and then twice, but the pounding of his heart in his chest would not slow. He looked toward the building to where she had gone, hoping to glimpse her for a moment without her knowing.

He swallowed hard.

"What the hell am I doing?" He asked himself under his breath. He reached for the pouch where he stored his cigarettes. He stood as he lit it and stepped out from the small alcove, pacing back and forth before the entrance. Being with her today had stirred something in him he hadn't felt in a while. With everything going on, he hadn't had much time for the more physical pleasures of life, even though he was no stranger to them. But this level of desire was an extreme he only vaguely remembered. 

He could leave, he knew. Just disappear before she returned and everything could be forgotten. He took a deep inhale on his cigarette, closing his eyes as he pulled in the burning air. Her face, complete with the slight blush on her cheeks and the bright smile she gave him earlier immediately sprang to mind. 

And then morphed into an imagined disappointment and then hardened resignation. 

He drew in another deep breath before stubbing out the half-used cigarette. After ensuring it no longer burned, he tucked it back into the pouch from which it came. He could finish it later and he did not want to mar the beauty of the garden. 

She returned shortly after he had retaken his seat, carrying a pair of plates, a knife, and two forks. 

"I brought some plates too so we can cut it in half." Her cheeks were still red as she placed her burden on the table and sat down across from him. 

Yami picked up a fork.

"Or, we could just dig in."

Her eyes widened as she met his with a gasp. She almost immediately licked her lips before biting the corner of her bottom lip. Something he had said shocked her.

"Are you sure?" She stammered, picking up the other fork. 

"Why not? It seems a waste to dirty plates with a cake this small."

A relieved sounding chuckle and a smile on her lips. She shook her head slightly. 

"Alright then. But this is too pretty to eat." Charlotte said as she picked up the knife and used it to pry the delicately constructed rose blossom from the top of the cake.

"You could though. I mean, it's all sugar." Yami stabbed his fork into the cake and pulled off a bit. As he brought it up he looked over at Charlotte and spun the fork around toward her. "Sorry, I should have let you get the first bite." He held the fork steady for her. 

Charlotte looked at the cake and then at him with something akin to shock on her face before she leaned forward and took the bite of cake from his fork. As she closed her lips around the morsel, it's aroma and flavoring hit her palate. The taste was familiar, but also like nothing she had tasted before. Somehow it was both homey and refined. And the texture was delicate and light, still with the feeling of cake, but in a way which seemed to melt in her mouth. She could not help but close her eyes as she pulled away from the fork as she savored the bite.

"That good?" Yami's amused voice made her eyes fly open once more, just in time for him to stab the fork into the cake once more and take a bite of his own.

Charlotte covered her mouth with her hand and nodded. 

"Yeah." She said once she felt her mouth was clear enough to talk. She used her fork to take another bite. Once she had recovered from the intensity of the cake tasting experience, Charlotte blushed as a realization struck her. Yami had fed her the first bite, and then proceeded to eat from the fork he had fed her with. He seemed to either not care, or to not realize what he had done. And he had done it for the second time, the first time was at the Star Festival which seemed like ages ago. Did this sort of indirect kiss not bother him? Did he even recognize it as such?

Charlotte scooped off another piece of cake and ate it as she watched him. She could not quite tell if there was something more meant by his visit today than just the apology he had explained, but she felt her instincts were pointing towards just that. 

"So, when you brought back my journal, I found something stuck inside it. Something that hadn't been there before."

"Oh?" He said around a mouth full of cake, and Charlotte wondered if she preferred that to the cigarette or not.

"Yeah. It was a pretty nice drawing, but I have no idea why it was in my journal." 

Yami looked up from the bite of cake he was about to put into his mouth and seemed every bit like a kid who had gotten caught with his hand in a candy jar. 

"Well, it was a drawing of you, so..." 

"Couldn't be," Charlotte said matter-of-factly before she took another bite.

"What?" He sat up straighter. "Why?"

"The woman in the drawing was too pretty. I'm not that pretty."

Yami put his fork down.

"Have you seen yourself? Because you are quite possibly the most beautiful woman in the entire kingdom. And that is an objective fact."

Charlotte blushed again. He thought she was beautiful? She had intended the questioning to be a way to trap him, to have him admit to something, but she wasn't quite sure what. Did he draw the picture? She couldn't come right out and ask.

"But the woman in the drawing, I don't know, she seemed to... glow somehow. I can't describe it."

"Well, I guess that's just how you seem to the person who drew it." His eyes were focused on her and his lips held a sort of pout she had never seen on his face before.

"Still, it is a beautiful picture, even if I don't believe it's me." She took another bite, resigned to never knowing for sure if he had drawn it or not.

"It looks just like you. I mean, I can't forget how you looked that day in the tavern, the light coloring to your cheeks as you brought me the cake... It's like it's seared into my mind." He stabbed out another bite of cake more angrily than she had thought necessary. "Putting it on paper was the only way I could think to keep you from haunting me." He said around a mouthful of food.

Charlotte froze and felt her heart racing, panicking over what she had thought she would never learn as it was so carelessly stated. 

"Thank you," she said softly as the blush returned to her cheeks. "I... I never imagined you could draw so well." She nibbled at another bite of cake. 

She glanced up at him only to find him staring at her. She quickly returned her attention to the now half-eaten dessert he had brought. She smiled softly as everything seemed to click into place.

"Yeah, well, I never thought you could write as you do." He said, his voice quiet. She looked up at him briefly once more as he stuffed another bite of cake into his mouth. Was she seeing things or did his face look flushed?

"Write like I...?" Charlotte furrowed her brow for a moment before realization dawned upon her. "You read my journal! You liar!" 

She had thought she would be mad if it turned out he had discovered some of the thoughts she wanted to keep buried, but instead she felt as if a weight had been lifted from her. She could never let him know that, however. What had he read, she wondered. 

"Not all of it." He was on the defensive again. "I really sort of... stumbled upon some parts of it. Like how my name showed up there... quite a bit."

He looked up at her, and their eyes locked. 

"I never imagined you could think like that, Charlotte." He licked his lips unconsciously as he gazed at her. 

"What exactly did you read?" Her voice quivered from embarrassment and excitement. 

Yami chuckled as he looked away. Charlotte could have sworn she saw a light blush on his cheeks once more.

"It was rather intense. Something about me throwing you against a wall?"

Charlotte groaned. She had dreamed of him so many times, imagined him taking her not so much by force, but forcefully. Part of her was excited by the prospect. Everything about him screamed dominance and virality, at least to her anyway. She knew others were less attracted to such blatant physical displays. And since she had always taken charge of everything else, part of her longed for someone to take charge of her.

"You know, all you had to do was ask." He picked at the remains of the cake with his fork, unable to look at her. Charlotte propped her elbows on the table and leaned forward.

"I don't know. I think asking might defeat the purpose, maybe?"

A quick quirky smile touched his lips as he chuckled slightly.

"And if you don't then how am I supposed to know what you want?"

"Touche," Charlotte said with a sigh. She went after another piece of cake and chewed it in silence for a moment.

"So," Yami cleared his throat. "The cake in the tavern. Was it extra?"

Had he not figured it out yet?

"In the sense that we had more than we needed? Yes."

"But did you plan on it? Was it intentional? I guess that's what I'm asking."

Charlotte took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Yes. The entire thing was a set up just so I could give you a piece of cake."

He looked at her skeptically. 

"I'm not sure if I should believe you."

"Well, what about this?" She waved her empty fork over the now nearly gone cake. "If all you wanted was to give a simple apology, you need not go through so much trouble."

"Yeah, well... Um... I really have nothing to say about that."

"So the apology was an excuse?"

Yami shrugged as he scraped some icing from the plate on which the remains of the cake sat.

"Well, not entirely. I do feel bad about the journal thing."

"You had already apologized for that."

"I guess I did, didn't I?"

"I've... I've never hated you, you know." Charlotte knocked the last piece of cake standing over and cut it in half with her fork. She left most of the icing on the plate. As she lifted it to her lips she looked up at Yami. His expression was filled with skepticism. 

"I... I know that." But the tone in his voice made him seem uncertain. He reached in with his fork for the last bite of cake and scooped the remains of icing together into one large mound of sugar. 

"So what does this mean?" Charlotte watched as he finished the sweet treat. She rested her chin on her fist. She felt emboldened by their shared experiences recently. Today would be the day, she told herself. 

Yami took his time considering the answer as he practically licked the plate clean. What could he say? He knew what she had meant by the question. He knew what she wanted to know. What he did not know was quite how to say what he meant. 

He liked her but had always looked at her as someone set above him. Her unattainability had made it easier to ignore his attraction to her. But now, on a few occasions, the pedestal in his mind upon which he had set her had started to crumble. He had been able to glimpse the real her, the genuine Charlotte beneath the posturing and reputation. 

And he had been able to learn how insignificant their differences were. And he had learned how she felt for him.

He would be lying if what he had read in her journal hadn't been a boost to his esteem. 

"I respect you Charlotte. I always have." 

He looked her in her eyes and felt the desire rising within him once more. 

"I... I never allowed myself to feel anything more. But I think I do. I'm just not sure what."

Charlotte closed her eyes as the corners of her lips turned upwards slightly. She stood up, feeling more bold and sure of her emotions than she had been since the moment she decided to confess her feelings to her squad. She rounded the table until she stood next to him, but still with an easy escape. She lay a hand on his cheek, feeling his skin warm and rough against her fingertips. His gaze had followed her. His eyes seemed to burn through her and his pulse raced as her finger drifted down onto his neck. She could kiss him, she knew as she stared at him so close. She should kiss him. She wanted to. But her resolve, so strong a moment ago, wavered as she looked at him. She felt herself lick her lips before sighing.

"I guess that will have to do." She withdrew, straightening, her hand falling to her side. She turned around as disappointment struck her. Disappointment in herself over getting her hopes up, and at failing, once more, to be truthful with what she wanted. 

"Oh, and thanks for the cake." She said over her shoulder as she tried to make her escape after succumbing to her fears. "It was delicious."

***

Yami stared into her eyes--cerulean blue orbs which searched his face. She seemed to want something but had lost what it was along the way to ask. Her hand was warm against his cheek. He leaned into it. How long had it been since someone had touched him like this? His eyes flicked toward her lips as her tongue darted between them.   
She was so close, he could almost taste her. He wanted to taste her, to kiss her lips. He figured they tasted like chocolate, given the flavoring of the cake, but she had a strong smell of vanilla he had not noticed before. 

He blinked his eyes slowly, only to open them once more as she was backing away from him. She thanked him for the cake and turned to leave. Her steps were quick, beating a hasty retreat as if she feared something. 

But she was gone, disappearing down the path before Yami realized it. And she was getting farther away by the moment as he stood up, his awareness finally catching up with his sudden lonely state. He stepped out to the path down which she was walking at a fast pace. Each second he watched her, the distance between them grew. And with each step she took from him, Yami grew more certain he never wanted that distance between them again. 

He took off like a shot after her. Closing the distance in only a few seconds and cursing himself for the sudden burst of speed and its ill effect on his long-abused lungs, he grabbed at her arm. He stopped her and spun her around. Before either of them could react, he pressed his lips against hers. The kiss was nothing like he had ever thought of giving her. It was ungainly and awkward in its suddenness. She stood stiffly, shocked in his arms. 

Bad idea, he thought, until she kissed him back, placing her hands against his chest and shifting her head just a touch to better meet his lips. She pressed her lips against his once, twice, and then a third time before he answered, his arms tightening around her back. 

Time seemed to slow until she pulled away from him, panting. He pressed his forehead against hers as he fought to control his breathing. Slowly he opened his eyes only to see her eyes were still closed, and her face was flushed. He brushed his fingers against her cheek before kissing her again. Her hands slipped their way up his chest and over his shoulders. One hand circled his neck and her fingers slid through his hair as she hungrily devoured his kisses. 

A whoop of excitement from the distance startled them, and they sprung apart. But only for a moment to look around. The rustling of leaves and the scattering of stones along the pathway gave them pause, but their visual inspection of the area turned up nothing suspicious. 

"You think we're being watched?" Charlotte's grip on his shoulder tightened. Yami brushed her hair behind her ear, stroking her cheek until she looked back at him.

"Undoubtedly." He said before capturing her lips once more with a series of soft light kisses which made her tremble within his grip. 

"You don't think we should stop?" she said between kisses, her voice quivering. 

"No." The light kisses grew more demanding and passionate. He wanted her. He didn't care who might see. He wanted her now. She was all he could think about--the taste of her, the feel of her. He needed more of her. His lips drifted toward her jaw and neck. She gasped as he pulled her tightly against him. Or maybe it was from the gentle nip he took at her neck? His entire being was filled with her, teetering on the edge of collapse. He wanted to be inside her. 

"Captain!" A voice called from the entrance to the garden. A male voice, he registered after a moment. He let out an angry grunt as he forced himself from her.

"What." He growled, and Finral took a step back and stared at him with wide, fearful eyes. 

"Um, we need to get back home. We're leaving for the Heart Kingdom tomorrow, and..."

Yami closed his eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. 

Why had he waited so long? Why had he been so clueless for so long? 

He looked down at the top of Charlotte's head as she tightened her hold on his waist and pressed her forehead into his chest. Her entire body shook, though he was still sorting out whether it was desire or embarrassment which caused it.

"You're going to the Heart Kingdom?" She whispered just loud enough for him to hear. Her voice seemed unbearably sad. 

"Hell no. Some of my people are though." He matched her tone of voice.

She sighed against him, relaxing a bit.

"Oh. Well. Maybe we can see each other again?" Breathless was the only way he could describe her voice. She squeezed at his waist, pulling her hips closer to his, even as she leaned back to look at his face. 

"Yeah. I'd like that."

"Tomorrow?" She raised her eyebrows hopefully. "I mean if it's not too soon." She added with haste as a blush colored her cheeks. Yami brushed her bangs off of her forehead and planted a kiss there.

"Yeah. Though maybe someplace a little more private would be in order?" 

She tried to hide the excited smile threatening to erupt on her face. She chewed on her bottom lip as she kept glancing away from him and then back again. She brushed her hands over his chest. 

"You have any ideas where?" 

"I'm sure I'll think of something." He gave her a slow, deep kiss filled with promise and desire. He ignored for a moment Finral's insistent calls for their departure, savoring every bit of her. And he would continue to do so, he knew, as long as he could.

He didn't want to stop kissing her, but eventually, she pushed him away, lightly, but insistently. He could see reluctance on her face.

"You should go. Your squad needs you."

Her eyes, far more truthfully than any words, said that she needed him too. 

Reluctantly he pulled his arms back from her until they were once more two beings. She was right. And he would make good on his promise to find a way to see her soon. He needed to because already the world felt colder without her in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end. I would think it's safe to assume they find some time to get together at some point and likely have sexy fun times.

**Author's Note:**

> Since this is based on the Japanese version of Valentine's day, I've got ideas for a White Day sequel already. Hopefully, that will be out in about a month...


End file.
